Content ratings for television programs are conventionally communicated to the television receiver embedded in or otherwise with the broadcast data, also referred to herein as being communicated in-band. For analog transmissions, a byte pair is transmitted with the broadcast of the program content may be set aside for and contain the rating of the particular program. A V-chip or the like on the receiver can then read this byte pair and block the presentation of the program content if the particular user desires to block content having ratings above a particular level. This blocking level is programmed by the user into the receiver. For digital transmissions, e.g., ATSC, a legacy mechanism is available to block program content in the same sense as for analog. Further however, digital programming conventionally allows for the transmission, also in-band, of both ratings and a ratings schema by the broadcaster. Conventional ratings information of these types may then provide for blocking or filtering of content as well as for providing for display of the schema as for example in menu format by the receiver, or associated playback device. The ratings schemas or tables provide for looking-up content specific ratings and translation to a value that may be utilized by the TV user interface for blocking or filtering content, or for generating menus or guide information or for fulfilling other requirements.
Even so, such implementations may be improved. Parental control of media content may be improved particularly when and/or if ratings codes or schema are either non-existent in connection with media content or are otherwise not communicated with media content and/or when changes might have occurred to the ratings information for a particular bit of content, or to the rather global schema governing the content.